2015 THE World University Rankings
2015 Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings
Summary
Times Higher Education (THE), a weekly British magazine reporting specifically on news and issues related to higher
education, released the 2015 edition of THE World University Rankings on September 30, 2015. The University of
Saskatchewan (U of S) ranked in the band of 401-500 out of 800 institutions worldwide 1. In previous years, only the top
400 were ranked, and the U of S has never been in that range. Within Canada, the U of S ranked 19-21 nationally and 15
among U15.
Twenty-five Canadian universities, including all U15 universities, were placed in the top 600. University of Toronto was
ranked the highest at 19, followed by University of British Columbia (34), McGill University (38) and McMaster University
(94). Besides the U15, other Canadian universities that ranked in the top 600 included University of Victoria, Simon Fraser
University, University of Guelph, Carleton University, York University, Concordia University, University of Quebec,
University of Sherbrooke, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and University of Regina.
What is the ranking based on?
The THE World University Rankings were based on the weighted scores of thirteen indicators in five pillars as indicated
below.
Area
Teaching (30%)
Research (30%)
Citations (30%)
Industry income
(2.5%)
International
outlook (7.5%)
Indicator
Reputational survey – teaching
Academic staff / total students
Doctorates awarded / undergraduate degrees awarded
Doctorates awarded / academic staff
Institutional income / academic staff
Reputational survey – research
Academic papers / academic & research staff
Research income / academic staff
Citation impact (normalized average citations per paper)
Research income from industry and commerce (per academic
staff)
Weight
15%
4.5%
2.25%
6%
2.25%
18%
6%
6%
30%
Source
Reputational survey
University provided data
University provided data
University provided data
University provided data
Reputational survey
Scopus database
University provided data
Scopus database
2.5%
University provided data
Ratio of international to domestic staff
Ratio of international to domestic students
Proportion of internationally co-authored research papers
2.5%
2.5%
2.5%
University provided data
University provided data
Scopus database
The THE Rankings used z-scores to normalize the results for each indicator. That is, scores were calculated based on the
distance between each value from the average of the entire dataset. Theoretically, if a university had a score of 40 in
Citations, it meant that 40% of the universities who participated in the THE Rankings were ranked below the university.
For more information on the THE ranking methodology, please go to: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/worlduniversity-rankings/2016/world-ranking/methodology
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The top 200 universities were ranked individually from 1 to 200. Between 201 and 400, universities were ranked into the groups of 50. Universities
ranked between 401 and 600 were placed into two groups of 100, while those placed between 601 and 800 were all grouped together.
THE rankings 2015 | October 2015 | University of Saskatchewan
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2015 THE World University Rankings
Scores of the University of Saskatchewan
The following table shows the scores for the U of S for each of the five pillars of the THE rankings. Although the U of S still
ranked last among U15, we scored higher than last year in all five areas. However, while the higher scores were generally
a reflection of improvement, the significantly increased citations score was primarily the result of changes in ranking
methodology: 1) a change to the source of data from Thomson Reuter’s Web of Science to Elsevier’s Scopus; 2) the
removal of publications that had more than 1,000 authors; and 3) the reduction of level of normalization of citation data
within countries.
It is also worth noting that we ranked third among the U15 and 153rd in the world in average research income from
industry and commerce per academic staff. Unfortunately this indicator only accounted for 2.5% of the total weight.
Year
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Median score for U15
U of S rank among U15
Teaching
(30%)
19
31
29
29
30.8
37.5
13th
Research
(30%)
18
21
21
20
22.4
36.7
15th
(30%)
Industry
income
International
outlook (7.5%)
OVERALL
12
23
23
28
39.7
65.2
15th
57
55
73
58
62.9
50.3
3rd
51
42
42
50
52.9
74.4
15th
20
27
27
28
33.4
48.1
15th
Citations
(2.5%)
THE rankings 2015 | October 2015 | University of Saskatchewan
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